Saintless

Since Organizing for America is helping host tonight’s watch party for the State of the Union Address, we got in on a conference call just before the SOTU, with David Plouffe. Here’s my summary:

He began by thanking everyone for all of their work from the primaries, through the 2008 Election, to our current efforts for healthcare.

Healthcare is a jobs issue, we won’t have a strong economy without it.

President Obama’s speech will rekindle a lot of enthusiasm.

Long term and short term are both the focus.

15,000,000 people first voted in 2008. We need to go back and talk to these first time voters, so they understand the importance of an off year election, and stay involved.

Do all we can to support both congress and our local communities.

“We want to stand with the taxpayers. They want to get repaid.”

Students, college – both very important.

The job of an elected official is not to get re-elected. It’s to serve the people.

We have to create new jobs, and create the environment for private sector growth.

If we don’t pick up the pace, our country is not going to be strong for years to come.

If you’d like to read as I liveblog the SOTU starting at 8 PM ET/ 6 PM CT, check this out, and keep refreshing to see updates.

Tags: David Plouffe

I’ll be live blogging President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address right here in this post. Once the Address begins, at 8 PM ET/6 PM CT, check back here, and refresh the page every once in a while. Note that RSS won’t pick this whole thing up, you’ll need to click through! I’d love to hear your comments on it, as well.

If you’d like to join me in person, come down to Lumpy’s at 3000 S Highland Dr in Salt Lake. The event is being hosted by Organizing for America and the Young Democrats of Utah.

Mark Hymas just announced a drinking game, but left it to Nikki Norton to explain.

Let me be clear: 1 shot
Change isn’t easy: 1 shot
Make no mistake: 1 shot
Lemme be clear, change isn’t easy, make no mistake (in one sentence): 5 shots

If Joe Wilson says anything: 1 shot
If Obama answers Wilson: Whole bottle

Nancy Pelosi claps like a seal: 1 shot
If she turns into a seal: Whole bottle

Obama mentions his dog Beau: Full beer, have another shot

Biden nods off, laughs inappropriately, speaks before it’s over: 3 shots

Obama says he’s fighting for you: 2 shots
Obama says “jobs”: 1 shot, 2 if you’re unemployed

Mention of Haiti: text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10

Also, next week is Young Dems Lunch with your Democratic Legislators.

Michelle Obama looks amazing, as always.

Someone tweeted that it’s so cold, they’re shivering. That’s funny. Except it means I’d be frozen! I wonder what other tweets will come out of that room?

————–

Sidenote: Why do dems always wear red? There’s no solidarity to be had with the GOP!

Hey, they just showed Skeletor!

For 220 years, our leaders have fulfilled the duty of giving updates to members of Congress.

It is tempting to assume our progress was inevitable, and we were destined to succeed – but we have had times that tested our strength and the courage of our union. We prevailed because of our conviction. We must answer history’s calls.

Obama took office in the face of warnings that we were facing a 2nd Great Depression. 1 year later, the storm has passed, but the devastation remains – jobs, rural areas, for those who are in poverty, it’s that much harder. This has only compounded the burden of working harder and longer for less in America.

—————

Change cannot come fast enough. Some are frustrated, angry.

America deserves for Dems & GOP to resolve our differences, and overcome the weight of our politics.

One woman wrote: We are strained but hopeful.

Because of this great courage, Obama has never been more hopeful about America’s future than he is tonight.

————-

Together we can deliver on that promise.

Obama’s most urgent task on taking office was to help shore up the banks that caused the crisis.

“When I ran for president, I promised that I wouldn’t just to what was popular, I would do what was necessary.”

When Obama took the financial rescue program over, he made it more transparent and more accountable. Has now recovered most of that money. To recover the rest, he proposes a fee on the biggest banks.

“Wall Street isn’t happy, but if they can afford to hand out bonuses again, they can afford to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.”

————-

We cut taxes for 95% of working families, small businesses, 1st time home buyers, for 8 million Americans paying for college.

We haven’t raised income taxes on a single person by a single dime.

Because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed.

Construction, teachers, cops. Prepared to add another 1.5 million jobs by the end of the year. The Recovery Act (Stimulus Bill) made this possible

————-

Sidenote: Biden looks like he’s deeply contemplating these ideas, and has never heard them before. I do love Biden, but he’s seeming a bit empty headed tonight.

Jobs #1 focus in 2010.

Start with small businesses.

Sidenote: Watching with my friends is better, we can pause the speech, and make our commentary, then resume.

Propose $30 billion from what banks have repaid and give to small banks to keep small businesses go.

Small business tax credit to businesses who hire new workers or raise wages.

Eliminate capital gains taxes on investment in small businesses.

Sidenote: I think the GOPers are upset that he’s not saying “big business”.

Breaks for Americans who make their homes more energy efficient.

End tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas!

—————-

These steps won’t make up for the 7 million jobs we’ve lost. The only way to do that is lay down a long term plan for economic growth. During the last decade, jobs and income grew slower than any other time, while school and basic costs grew faster.

China, Germany, Japan aren’t going to wait around for us to get ahead on jobs, clean energy, technology. “I will not accept 2nd place for America.”

Time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth. One place to start is financial reform. Guard against the same recklessness that brought down our economy.

We cannot let the financial institutions that brought down our economy to bring us down again.

We need to encourage American innovation. Last year we made the largest investment in research in our history. No area is more right for innovation than energy.

Comprehensive energy/climate bill!

Sidenote: Wooooohoooooooo! I’ll give the GOP some extra offshore drilling if we can accomplish this.

—————–

Overheard at Lumpy’s: Did someone duct tape Joe Wilson to his seat?

New goal: We will double our exports over the next 5 years – an increase of 2 million jobs in America.

National Export Initiative to help farmers and small businesses increase their exports.

We will strengthen our trade relations in Asia, Panama, (others but I was interrupted).

Education: we will reward achievement. The best anti poverty program around is education.

To make college more affordable, end the taxpayer subsidies for student loans. $10 K tax credit for 4 years of college. Only 10% of income to student loans, all debt forgiven after 20 years, 10 if public service.

Step up refinancing so homeowners can move into more affordable homes. To relieve the burden on middle class families, we need health insurance reform.

————–

“It should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was good politics. I took it on because of the stories from Americans” who had been denied coverage, patients who were one hospital visit away from financial ruin.

Michelle Obama is taking on the epidemic of childhood obesity.

Sidenote: Senator Ben McAdams just told me he had to go – his kids just overflowed the bathtub at home. Just be cause you’re in office, doesn’t mean your home responsibilities end.

“If anyone has a better approach that will (do all of the above) let me know.”

Obama asks Congress not to walk away from health reform – finish the job for the American people.

Sidenote: the big thing in Lumpy’s tonight is who is/isn’t standing in the congressional audience.

————

At the beginning of 2000 we had a budget surplus. When Obama took office we had a deficit. Most was result of not paying for 2 wars, tax cuts. All this was before I walked in the door.

Sidenote: Eveyone just boo’d John McCain.

Our efforts to prevent the 2nd Great Depression have added to our debt. Obama is convinced that’s the right thing to do.

Spending related to nat’l security, medicare, medicaid, social security will not be touched. We will cut everything else. if Obama has to force this by veto, he will.

Will continue to go through budget line by line, page by page. Already ID’d 20 billion in savings for next year. Will not continue tax cuts for (major companies).

Sidenote: I just had a realization that Teddy Kennedy isn’t in that crowd. That makes me sad.

————–

Calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests online BEFORE there is a vote.

“None of this will work if we don’t reform how we work with one another.”

Not naive, understood he wasn’t ushering in some new era of peace and harmony. But, America is frustrated by that in Washington every day is election day.

Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can.

No bill should be held hostage by the pet projects of individual senators.

“I will not give up on trying to change the tone of our politics. I know it’s an election year, and after last week, it’s clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual.” But people expect us to solve problems.

To the GOP: just saying no to everything might be good short term politics, but it’s not leadership.

Sidenote: Wooohoo! Obama you rock!

I just got asked why so many are wearing yellow. I’m trying to find out. I’m guessing either Haiti or the war.

————-

Sidenote: I think that the GOP just sat down instead of cheering national security.

“There will be difficult days ahead. But, I am absolutely confident that we will succeed.” [...] As a candidate I wswore to end this war. As president, that’s what I’m doing. By August we will have our troops out of Iraq. We will support the Iraqi government.

Our troops need to know that they have our respect, our gratitude. We have the responsibility to support our men and women when they come home.

Building a 21st Century VA. Michelle is joined by Jill Biden to support a 21st Century Commitment to Military Families.

Embraced vision JFK & Ronald Reagan, seek a world without nuclear stockpiles.

Our standing up for nuclear agreements strengthens our hand in dealing with nations who violate them.

————–

Sidenote: The GOP really is slow to stand and applaud. They seem to find Obama even speaking offensive, no matter how much they might agree with what he says.

Ok, that just stressed my voice. I was screaming. Obama just said he would work this year to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. OMFG!!! That’s the most direct he’s been about this since taking office.

Sidenote: I’m going to have a hard time listening to the rest of this speech. OMG OMG OMG!

I never suggested change would be easy. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be messy and complicated. It stirs passions and controversy. Those in public office can do what’s necessary to get through next election, instead of doing what’s best for the next generation.

If people 50 yrs ago, 100 yrs ago, 200 yrs ago, we would be here tonight. Only reason we’re here is because Americans weren’t afraid to do what was necessary to keep this nation alive for our children, grandchildren.

“What keeps me going, what keeps me fighting is that despite all these setbacks, that the spirit of optimism that has always been at the core of the American people lives on.”

“We don’t give up!”

And it’s done.

Tags: State of the Union Address

We all know Gayle Ruzika has gone off her rocker, but seriously?

Apparently, Gayle Ruzika, of The Eagle Forum, is against the spirit of patriotism, of responsbility, where we all pledge to work harder, and look not only after ourselves, but each other.

If you like that spirit, and you want to be a better person, and make your own pledge, go to USAService.org.

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Tags: Gayle Ruzika, patriotism, The Eagle Forum, USAService.org

I adore Rachel Maddow, and this is an example of why. But, then I have no intention of participating in public teabagging, either.

To all the teabaggers, I have a few things to say to you.

First, you keep talking about taxes. Except your taxes just got cut. Unless you’re rich, and make over $250K a year, President Obama just gave you a tax cut. I’m guessing there won’t be many people at these “parties” that didn’t get a tax break.

Second, I hate to try to redirect your failed anger, but I think your problem is the spending, rather than the taxes. But, see, your party (or at least the party of most of the teabaggers) is the one behind the problem we’re facing right now. The GOP, with Bush at the helm, drove our country into the ground. When Bush got into office, the Democratic Party (with Clinton at the helm) had managed to give our country a surplus. Bush took that surplus away, and put us back into deficit spending. Obama walked into a huge mess, and he has no choice but to fix it. And now, it seems convenient for Republicans to blame Obama and the Democrats.

But blaming Obama and the Democrats is wrong. Obama is doing what is necessary to fix this mess. It’s not pleasant, but it has to be done. And I don’t think any of you are considering the big picture. You’re in this narrow little alley that says the other party must be wrong, and that’s as much consideration as you’re willing to give it.

And finally: All of you are coming of like a bunch of two year olds throwing a tantrum. If you can quit the partisan whining, maybe we can go back to having a real conversation.

Just a little update: Teablogging.net. ’nuff said.

Tags: Rachel Maddow, teabagging

Newcomer to the United States House of Representatives, Jason Chaffetz, has some balls, all right (emphasis mine):

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, lent tentative support to President Barack Obama’s war policy in Iraq after spending two days in the war-ravaged nation as part of a congressional delegation.

“Thus far he has been pretty good at listening to the generals. I just hope that continues,” Chaffetz said. “My advice to the president is don’t let politics drive the timeline.”

Seriously? Chaffetz (in all of his worldly experience) thinks he’s finally got a chance to advice President Obama about something (yeah, right) and he tells him not to let politics drive him? I mean, because we all know Chaffetz gave a moment’s consideration to anything dealing with the budget that wasn’t politically driven. Uh, huh. Ri-i-i-ight.

Though, maybe this explains why Chaffetz blocked me on Twitter. He was afraid I might be a terr’ist, like all them other lib’rels, and since he was traveling to see the rest of them terr’ists over in Iraq, it was dangerous to keep me on Twitter!

I wonder if Obama laughed him out of the room when he gave that advice, or treated him more like a pesky fly?

Tags: Representative Jason Chaffetz

Apparently, our good Governor Huntsman has invited President Obama to the Western Governor’s Association Meeting in Park City this June.

Who is in for encouraging him to come back to Utah? I’ll be posting details of that plan, soon.

Once we have him confirmed, I’ll be posting details of how to say hi while he’s here. Just don’t expect more than we did the first time he stopped by. If you remember, we were just going to wave as he drove by, and stand around for hours to make sure we got that chance. We were told only 48 hours ahead that he was going to stop, and were only allowed to tell anyone that it was going to happen about 18 hours ahead.

Join us, k?

Surfing through my RSS feeds, I come upon a post from Senator Greg Bell that starts with this:

A college student wrote to ask me for her class assignment what the most pressing issue facing our society. I decided not to speak to moral issues but said the following:

My first thought was “Wow! He’s not going to go with some religious pronouncement that gays are ruining marriage, or that letting children see alcholic drinks poured in restaurants is going to make them grab the nearest bottle and drive over grandma.” Then, I wondered what the subject would be. Being a Utah Republican, it wasn’t likely that he was too worried that bad environmental policies are going to leave our children without a planet upon which to reside. Nor was it likely that he’s too worried that Utah’s one-party rule is bad for our state. Highly doubtful that it had anything to do with Human Rights, or the lack thereof, of any sort. So, what could Sen. Bell think was the most pressing issue for our society?

Although he never mentions Democrats or Obama directly, he infers that the whole economic mess we’re in is their fault. Yep, those Obama Democrats are the “most pressing issue facing society”. Here’s how he starts out:

The most pressing governmental policy issue is the expansion of the federal government into areas I believe are unconstitutional. And whether or not these actions are unconstitutional, the funding for the federal government’s programs and bail-out packages is unsustainable. The government has shouldered staggering debt to finance programs and the bail-outs. The massive expenditure of funds in the bail-out/stimulus packages will, by almost everyone’s admission, cause serious inflation. Moreover, taxes will have to be increased, jobs and company expansions will be curtailed with higher taxes, and more and more people will become dependent on the federal government for income, health care and food.

Apparently, it’s ok for the State of Utah to tread on unconstitutional ground, though. I mean, they just passed a bill with the purpose of funding the legal battles that come from attempting to ban abortions. Um, which is unconstitutional. That’s about the point I started feeling pressure in my head. Then I got to the point where he used the word “unsustainable”. Because I can think of a ton of ways that government practices are unsustainable, and most of them are related to the environment, of Bush’s (and the GOP’s) last 8 years, which got us into this mess to begin with. So, he’s seriously telling this college  kid that GW’s trash heap that Obama’s attempting to clean up is somehow all Obama’s fault. That’s about where my head exploded.

He then takes the opportunity to give himself and the rest of the Utah Senate a nice pat on the back by saying how neighboring states are failing, but Utah is doing the right thing, and businesses like us.

Wait, what was the original question, again? Oh, yeah. “What is the most pressing issue facing our society?” His answer: ‘Those darn Democrats. But Utah politicians are the good guys’. Way to stay on topic, Senator.

Anyone have a better answer?

Tags: economy, Utah Senator Greg Bell

I follow Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Twitter. He sent a link out today to this video with Stephen Colbert:

Amusing, as all Chaffetz-Colbert interaction seems to be. But, the next one has me a bit concerned. Watch him talk about Obama’s budget:

He says that Obama’s budget is “an all time record high”. Except he’s leaving out the fact that Obama isn’t hiding pieces of his budget, as Bush did. He included everything that should have been in there, instead of hiding funding in other bills and pretending they weren’t supposed to be part of the budget.

“It is only by restoring fiscal discipline over the long run that we can produce sustained growth and prosperity. [...] In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go. For too long, our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent. Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

It feels like Chaffetz is not viewing the situation honestly, and is instead giving in to the kneejerk reaction that there’s no room for compromise between Democrats and Republicans. Perhaps he’s trying to make a name for himself, and secure his seat in the years to come. But, if he saw things wrong with the budget, I think he would have been far more effective to try to work with it, and fix the things he saw wrong, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. He won’t prevent the budget from being passed, but it’s possible that if he wasn’t so dead set against it, that he might be able to make it better. And that if he didn’t view everything with partisan glasses, he might be an effective Congressman someday.

Tags: Representative Jason Chaffetz

Come back here to watch Obama address Congress at 7 PM MST.

I’ll be Tweeting also, using the hashtag #nSOTU

I’ve had people try to tell me that my outrage over Obama choosing Warren is divisive. That Obama is trying to bring us all together, and that I “shouldn’t be angry” over this.

Except that my anger isn’t the cause of the divisiveness, if that’s what it is. Obama’s choice is. And I damn well should be angry!

Now, I’m not saying I don’t still support Obama, because I do. I don’t expect to agree with him 100% of the time. But, this was the wrong choice on Obama’s part, and I refuse to just pretend that I think it’s ok.

If Obama wants to bring everyone to the table so we can sing Kum Ba Yah, and all get along, that’s one thing. Obama is bringing someone to his Inauguration to play a prominent role that represents hatred and equates homosexuality with child molestation. If he were to bring a prominent anti-semitic in such a way, do you really think that anyone would be telling the Jewish Community that they are wrong to be angry, or to just get over it?

Rachel Maddow drives some of my feelings home in the above video. (via ThinkProgress)

The implication of Sen. Obama’s defense is that he is returning the favor.

[…]

But Obama is not inviting Rick warren into his church or into his campaign or something. He’s inviting him to the nation’s capital to convene the swearing in of the next president of the United States. The President-elect did not invite Warren to his home. He invited him, proverbially, to our’s, the nation’s.

[...]

When human rights activists look back decades, centuries, from now, on the first presidential innauguration of an African American, a landmark achievement won’t they be thinking ‘what a great moment’, but ‘what was that guy who compared homosexuality to incest doing there?’

Apparently, even Rick Warren’s supports are upset by this. Who is being united by this?

Via Ezra Klein, I came across Matt Yglesias’ thoughts on the subject:

A brief point to make is that it’s very easy for a person who isn’t part of the minority group that’s being symbolically dissed to dismiss someone else’s concerns as merely symbolic and not that big a deal. But it’s worth considering how much public policy acts consistently to reaffirm the symbolic commitments of majority groups.

I finally got to watch Milk last night. I cried through almost the entire movie, and I don’t do that. I kept seeing so many parallels to today. No, gays aren’t rounded up in bars and hauled off to jail anymore. We’ve made progress there. But, the Prop 6 fight (to fire all gay teachers and their supporters), which Harvey Milk fought, was so similiar to the Prop 8 fight we just went through. Except Prop 6 didn’t pass, but Prop 8 did. After watching the movie, the thought “why are we still fighting this exact same fight 30 years later?” kept going through my head.

I went to see Milk with a friend, who reminded me that I should instead be concentrating on Harvey Milk’s real message. And that is – we’re all in this together. The GLBTQ community is a minority. We won’t accomplish anything on our own. We have to have the support of our straight allies. We have to form partnerships. We have to make sure that others realize that we’re here, and then that they know we are not freaks of nature.

For anyone who thinks that gay marriage or gay rights in general, are not a big deal, that there are “other, more important issues” to focus on, I have to say that this is a big deal. You don’t understand until you are the one being discriminated against. And how could you, really? Even more, though – these rights represent something far more than they might appear to, at first. Until we are accepted as equals, and society doesn’t see us as abnormal freaks of nature, we are still going to see gays lose their jobs, lose their housing, and even killed. You don’t hear about these things through the mainstream media. That means most people don’t even know it’s happening. 8 days ago, a gay man in Washington D.C. was shot and killed. All signs point to it being because he was gay. Utah is one of 20 states that do not include sexual orientation in hate crimes statistics. So, when you read that there were 1,195 victims of a sexual orientation based hate crime in 2006, that means the number is nowhere close to reality.

I could lose my job because I’m bisexual. The only way I can even hope to get a straight person to understand that, is to tell you that you, too, could be fired, if your boss just thinks you are gay. And I bet that doesn’t even halfway drive the point home.

The GLBTQ community cannot just pretend this isn’t a big deal. I’m not saying that I think we should go impeach Obama. I’m saying this community should be standing up and telling Barack Obama that we disapprove of his choice. Our voices are just a tiny part of the population, and our country is supposed to be one where the minority is protected from having the majority trample them. But, that just won’t happen if we stay quiet.

So, if you think I’m being loud and obnoxious about this, I’m doing something right.